1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to practice aid devices used when training for recreational sporting activities and, more particularly, to novel apparatus providing a lightweight and portable three-dimensional target area for receiving and collecting golf balls during chipping and pitching practice.
2. The Background Art
Golf is one of the most popular recreational and competitive sports in the world and its popularity is on the increase. The game of golf, however, is one of the most difficult games to master without investing many hours of practice.
As will be appreciated, a golf course generally has nine or eighteen holes spread over a landscaped area of fairways and greens that typically includes a number of hazards such as water, rough, sand traps, and/or trees that are designed to make the game more difficult. Difficulty is also increased by the varying distances among holes. At the end of each hole, which can vary in length from about 135 meters to 550 meters (150 yards to 600 yards), is the putting green, which surrounds the actual hole into which the ball must be putted in order to complete the hole.
Each participant uses a variety of clubs to drive a small ball into a succession of designated holes, over a course of obstacles, in as few strokes as possible. To this end, low golf scores are often attributed to a good short game. An essential part of the short game involves chipping the ball short distances in order to position the ball near the hole for putting. However, many people do not practice their short game because it can be relatively tedious.
Since the game of golf continues to attract an increasing number of players, various types of instructional aids and practice devices have been developed to assist golfers in improving their technique and level of skill. For example, those skilled in the art developed golf practice devices comprising a length of rigid cylindrical tubing in the form of a loop that is supported by at least three support legs connected to the loop. The support legs provide positioning of the tubing above the ground to thereby define a practice area within the clearance portion of the legs and the outside diameter of the circle of tubing.
Similarly, those skilled in the art developed ball targeting devices characterized by being made up of an open frame having a generally circular, outer peripheral support rim which is adjustably mounted in a raised, horizontal position above the ground surface by circumferentially spaced adjustable leg members. A target in the form of a solid panel or sheet is inset or positioned in a plane beneath the upper edge of the support rim and fastened thereto, thereby offering very much the same playing surface as the ground surface so that when a ball strikes the panel the golfer can ascertain by the speed and distance of roll across the panel whether the ball has been properly struck. For convenience, a pair of ball return conduits are positioned in spaced relation to one another in the panel disposed in relation to the support panel.
Another prior art targeting device developed by those skilled in the art involves the use of an inverted umbrella canopy that serve as a backstop for stopping or interrupting the flight of low trajectory golf balls. This inverted umbrella canopy device includes pockets which act as both targets and collection receptacles for golf balls. In order for a golf ball to be received and retained within one of the pockets, the ball must be hit with such precision so as to introduce the ball within the collection pocket, otherwise the ball is deflected by the inverted canopy acting as a backstop, thereby producing a "rebound" effect relative to the direction, angle, and force of impact of the ball against the backstop thus providing a variety of directional rebound possibilities.
As can be appreciated, the inability to determine potential rebound possibilities of an incoming projectile invokes safety ramifications in relation to potential injuries which may be sustained by a user or others in the vicinity of the inverted umbrella backstop. Another significant disadvantage of such prior art targeting/backstop golf practice devices is that the inverted canopy which is disposed at an angle to the ground does not collect and retain a majority of the golf balls that are hit into its internal periphery. Furthermore, because the targeting pockets in the backstop are positioned above ground-level and disposed at an angle relative to the ground such that a ball would have to travel in a different trajectory than would be generally taken by a golf ball targeted to a hole on the green, these prior art targeting devices do not realistically simulate chipping into a hole on the golf course.
In an attempt to improve the portability and placement of prior art golf practice devices, those skilled in the art developed a golf chipping target comprised of a body having a disc-shaped upper surface and a circumferential portion surrounding the upper surface which provides a gradual slope and extends downwardly from the upper surface. The bottom of the circumferential portion defines a circular opening for receiving a golf ball in netting loosely secured beneath the rim of the opening, thereby providing means for entrapping a ball entering the hole. The golf chipping target device is adapted so that it glides or flies a substantial distance when thrown through the air and lands in an upright position on the ground upon impact. A disadvantage to these prior art golf chipping targets, however, is that the opening formed in the disc-shaped base unit comprises a restricted internal surface area such that only a single golf ball is capable of fitting dimensionally within the opening.
Consistent with the foregoing, while golf practice and targeting devices of the prior art may appear generally suitable for their intended purposes, they nevertheless leave much to be desired from the standpoint of effectiveness of operation and protecting a user or others from potential injuries sustained from rebounding golf balls. In this regard, the present invention provides for novel apparatus providing a lightweight and portable three-dimensional target area for receiving and collecting golf balls during chipping and/or pitching practice which overcomes several deficiencies of prior art golf practice and targeting devices and resolves several problems left unsolved by the known prior art.
It will be appreciated that it would be an advancement in the art to provide an apparatus for efficiently receiving and collecting golf balls so that chipping and/or pitching performance of a user can be quantified. It would be a further advancement to provide such a device that has a flag serving as a target and a collection assembly that collects golf balls having a trajectory similar to that taken by a golf ball targeted for a hole on the green of a golf course. Finally, it would be an advancement in the art to provide a golf collection device with the foregoing features that facilitates the functionality of an umbrella and which is easy to assemble and disassemble, efficient in operation, and portable for carrying on the golf course.